Have no idea where to start...

Ok I am a freakin' noob about sound systems. Ok so here is my problem I finally got a job and I'm not having to pay anything except for insurance so I have the money to spend on a nice quality sound system. I have a 96' Altima and before I bought it they stole the radio out of the car so I have been driving it for close to 6 months now with no music at all. So I was wondering if anybody could help me out, maybe let me know where I should start? What should I buy first? Should I buy an amp? Or maybe a cd player/mp3 player? Cuz I have know idea where to start. My limit I guess would be somewhere around $750 cuz thats what i have saved up but if anybody knows of anything more expensive but still a good deal let me know. Please any help would be greatly appreciated.


**edit**--- Oh yeah, should I buy online or from a dealer in town?

Well obviously you need a CD Player...an amp is useless without something to run it on. And *wisely* shop around on eBay. I have bought my CD player, Amp, subs, speaker wire, fuses, etc. from there and theyre all just fine...you just have to read everything and choose the one with best shipping costs. It sounds like you dont care what you can get as long as you have something...but dont go for the cheap brands, buy an Alpine deck. I have the CDA-9827, its awesome and was only $207 with shipping...brand new in the box.

whenevr i pieced a system together i always went HU first (check out alpine 9830 line) then upgrade your in car speakers (check out alpine spr line) and amplify 'em then go subs and amp them. once you got your base then go peripherals (ie. eq's crossovers caps batteries and monitors. this way you always have something good and its always getting better.

Well obviously you need a CD Player...an amp is useless without something to run it on. And *wisely* shop around on eBay. I have bought my CD player, Amp, subs, speaker wire, fuses, etc. from there and theyre all just fine...you just have to read everything and choose the one with best shipping costs. It sounds like you dont care what you can get as long as you have something...but dont go for the cheap brands, buy an Alpine deck. I have the CDA-9827, its awesome and was only $207 with shipping...brand new in the box.

When I buy a cd player, is there anyway that I can make any cd player fit? Or would I have to get one specifically for an altima?

No, they have the kits made specifically for your car that allow the cd players to fit.

Anyways, if you can get an Alpine for a good price, go for it. Just keep in mind that if you buy from eBay or some other places online, sometimes the products aren't covered under warranty. But still, you can get some great deals online, nonetheless.

Ok so far I've been doing searches on alpine cd players on ebay and this one looks the closest to what might fit in the huge hole where my stereo should be. But how do I find out if it will fit before I buy it? Do I just make an educated guess?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39755&item=5709095292&rd=1

the cda-9827 is a single din size stereo, it should fit your opening. if your opening is too large, you can buy for about $10-$15 an aftermarket kit that will make it fit flush. don't worry about the size of the hole unless you think it's too small for the stereo

ok cool so i could go and buy a smaller one then? cuz i dont really like the way that the bigger sized ones look like, i would rather have a smaller one and then buy that kit u were talking about to make it look flush.

Its called an installation kit and you can usually get them at Advance Auto, Autozone, and Wal-Mart.

Thats pretty normal sized...thats a face plate case below it by the way...

oh sh?t you thought that whole thing was the stereo?
na man, that part under it is the case to carry your face in when you take it off.

hehe yeah i thought it was the whole thing, now i can see it though. I think I might bid on it, is $117 a good deal on it?

when you go back to that eBay site to bid, click on "see larger picture" under the smaller picture. then when you get to the larger picture, you can choose to see the other picture close up (it's just to the upper right) that's a picture of the install kit to make it flush w/your car

shit, i waited too long, i forgot to look at when it ended and its already over, i'm gonna look for some more and i'll post them to see if their any good.

i was thinking about this one, i know the bid isn't going to stay that low but maybe i'll get lucky and if not i'll probably just buy it after it gets over $100.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5709792667

let me know what ya'll think of it

well, it's not the most feature laden alpine out there but it's cool for no more than $100 cause it don't have mp3 playback

Wait, does mp3 playback mean that I can't play my burned cd's?

it just means it cant' play mp3's.. you can still play cds/cdr/cdrw hopefully.. but hey what is ur budget? from my own experience.. dont go too cheap on a head unit.. you'll be sorry for the lack of features later when you want to expand your audio system.. i made so many mistakes.. but its ok now

o yea here a lil more info..

for alpine.. their lower end models really lack features.. my 9807 only had bass/treble control and subwoofer control.. that cost me $220.. but for the same price about $200 something the pioneer 7600 or premier 760mp offers much more standard features.. like a high pass for speakers a 3 band parametric eq, loudness.. the only thing that i dont like is the 2V preouts vs the 4v for alpine. o yea and the 760 has a different remote than the 7600 if u get an alpine i say atleast get the 9831.. if not i would recommend the pioneer one that i listed

the 7600
http://search.ebay.com/pioneer-deh-p7600mp_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsatit leZpioneerQ20deh-p7600mpQQsotrZ2QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQco entrypageZsearch

the 760 weird that it cost less the features are the same just branded premier
http://search.ebay.com/deh-p760mp_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsatitl eZdeh-p760mpQQsotrZ2QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoe ntrypageZsearch

my budget is pretty much anything for right now, i wouldn't wanna buy something really cheap though and then end up having to get something newer later on when i get everything else for my system, so i'll probably go with that pioneer u said. so the 760 u said would probably be the better bet right?

well personally i would have chosen something like the alpine cda-9833 or so.. but u gotta know this.. the bass output on alpine head units is pretty weak compared to other companies.. because they are very SQ or sound quality oriented.. i say u shoot for atleast the 9831 pioneer isn't that good when it comes to quality.. i got a premier deh-p860mp but i wanted to trade for a 9833.. the guy said i can't; exchange.. so im stuck with this one lol anyways good luck

yeah i dont think i'm gonna be needing much bass cuz i dont really listen to anything that needs it but i do listen to a lot of rock which i would need better sound quality for. so the question is which alpine head unit should i go for? because from what i hear the alpine is better on sound quality but worse on bass.

yeah i dont think i'm gonna be needing much bass cuz i dont really listen to anything that needs it but i do listen to a lot of rock which i would need better sound quality for. so the question is which alpine head unit should i go for? because from what i hear the alpine is better on sound quality but worse on bass.

well the alpine 9831 is a really good choice.. anything under that i think you should go for pioneer.. or try gettin an eclipse head unit.. they are supposed to be as good or better than alpine.. but i had no experience with them so i can't tell you how they sound

Oh well by the time I told you guys about that alpine cd player I was bidding on I had already bid and then after that nobody bid anymore so I won the cd player for $67. Ok so what would u guys think I should buy next? An amp? Or what?

. but u gotta know this.. the bass output on alpine head units is pretty weak compared to other companies.. because they are very SQ or sound quality oriented..

what in the world does that have to do with anything ? The CD player just picks up what is on the CD and puts the signal out.

That's what I thought, stereo is the brain of the operation not the muscle. Personally, if it isn't alpine, it's not worth it. What next, I would replace the stock speakers, upgrade. Last, amp and bass. That's just me though.

Ok so what kind of speakers do ya'll think I should get? I just joined the national guard so I'm going to be having 2 paychecks coming in every week in 2 weeks so I can afford to spend extra for good ones.

my top 5:
Boston Acoustic
Infinity
Alpine
MB Quart
Polk

ok what does all this mean?

100 Watts Peak

85Hz - 22kHz Response

91 db Sensitivity

4 Ohm

100 watts peak - thats the max. amount of power you want going to your speakers
85hz-22khz - these are the freqs. your speakers can reproduce
91db sensitivity - that's the highest db your speaker produce just before speaker induced noise is audible
4 ohms - this is a measure of how much your speakers resist the flow of electricity, (more ohms = more resistance)

Ok what would be some good numbers for some good speakers then?

s/n ratio is how loud it gets before the noise, and sensitivity is how loud it plays with one watt...

depends on a lot of factors, ie...what kind of speakers, application, your personal taste...

Ok how about for some alpine speakers, I am going to be leaning more towards sound quality instead of bass, and loud also.

alpine kickass!!!

what in the world does that have to do with anything ? The CD player just picks up what is on the CD and puts the signal out.
come on paul everyone's entitled to their own opinion.. i was misinformed.. also alot of people say that on sounddomain.. and from personal experience im saying that.. same amp, different head unit.. pioneer made more bass even with the settings all turned down.. the alpine i turned everything up even the bmx mode and its not this loud.. yes i set the gains to the best of my ear and reguardless the pioneer was louder

ok i finally got the cd player in the mail, and now the only problem is installing it, any pointers? cuz i looked at the connections and they dont look like they will fit, is there an adapter i can buy?

sure is...go to any stereo store and ask for a wiring harness for your make and model car

Ok cool because i called best buy earlier and they were telling me it would be $16.99 for the wiring harness and then another $16.99 for the installation kit, but then it was going to be $45.00 to acutally install it. Also I have to go to Pep Boys and buy an antenna because my old one was broken when I bought the car. But is it really that difficult to install? Because if not then I'll just buy the parts and install it myself. Or would it be better to just have them do it?

unless you have any experience with electricity, I wouldn't tell you to do it yourself. I mean it's easy to do, but at the same time it's just as easy to mess up

dammit ok check this out, first i went to best buy to buy the installation kit and wiring harness and antenna, well they sold me the wrong installation kit so when i went back they told me they dont have any for a 96 altima. so then i went to circuit city to see if they did and they did so i went over there but then they told me that i needed a metal sleeve for my cd player and they dont carry the older model sleeves. so i called every single damn audio store in town and nobody in my city carries alpine cd players. so now i'm pretty much screwed. any suggestions?

there's (2) types of sleeves. the first type is just a thin metal box used to lock the HU into the dash, this type doesn't have any connections to it, and can be replaced by another sleeve that fits it's dimensions. (the single DIN size is very common).
the second type is a pocket for the pull out type HU's. this type of sleeve have all of the connections and wiring attached to it, so it's necessary to have the same type for your HU.

which type of sleeve do you need?

Okay, do you have a pocket under the hole where the stereo was? If so you should have some metal brackets holding it in place, you can use those brackets to install your new stereo by using the stubby little screws that came with it. A universal multi pocket will work IF you still have the two metal brackets in your dash (there's one on each side of the radio/pocket)

If you just have a giant hole in your dash you need to do one of two things,
1) Buy a replacement pocket AND metal brackets from the dealer
or
2) Find a dash kit for your car from an aftermarket shop but in this instance you will also need the metal sleeve that goes around the radio to hold it in the dash kit THE SLEEVE IS BRAD SPECIFIC so, if you have an alpine you need an alpine sleeve, a sony a sony sleeve...etc..most small stereo shope will sell you them for 5 bux or so because they have left overs from iso-mount jobs....This sleeve should have come with your stereo when you bought it...

hope this helps

- MarCy

Yea, that one is nice, my friend has it. That doesnt come with the sleeve or the case or harness, but you can get it seperate. I'd pay 100$ for it, Alpine's the way to go.

there's (2) types of sleeves. the first type is just a thin metal box used to lock the HU into the dash, this type doesn't have any connections to it, and can be replaced by another sleeve that fits it's dimensions. (the single DIN size is very common).
the second type is a pocket for the pull out type HU's. this type of sleeve have all of the connections and wiring attached to it, so it's necessary to have the same type for your HU.

which type of sleeve do you need?

I think I need the first type because my HU isn't a pull out one. It's an alpine cda-7874. They said it was an '02 model cd player.

come on paul everyone's entitled to their own opinion.. i was misinformed.. also alot of people say that on sounddomain.. and from personal experience im saying that.. same amp, different head unit.. pioneer made more bass even with the settings all turned down.. the alpine i turned everything up even the bmx mode and its not this loud.. yes i set the gains to the best of my ear and reguardless the pioneer was louder

You are right. The biggest difference is usually with the output voltage on the rca outputs being pretty high on the Pioneer units. I use to do a lot of stereos and sold just about all brands and for some reason, the Pioneer stuff seemed to have better bass responce even through OEM speakers.

As far as installing, I thought these cars were ISO mount so you don't need a sleeve. THose big chain people always try to use a kit even when you do not need one. I'd try what Marcy said and see where it goes. Personally I wouldn't have bid on such an old radio off of Ebay. There's just as nice ones that are currant models for under $100.

Yeah I am seriously considering just selling this cd player back on ebay and just going to a dealer in town and buying a pioneer HU or looking to see if they have any better ones on ebay. Because if I go with an alpine then if something goes wrong nobody in town will be able to repair it since nobody sells them here. So if anybody can tell me what a really good pioneer HU is, and a new one. Please let me know.

deh7600 and up

Oh well, i was about to bid on that pioneer cd player and my mom caught me and told me she already bought a sleeve for my cdplayer so we got it and i got it all installed over at circuit city. So now i need to upgrade my speakers, so is there any specific model or anything I should look out for when I'm buying speakers? Cuz i dont know what all the measurements and decibels and all that mean.